One of the Seven
by Aslan's Lamb
Summary: Snow White has received a letter from the dwarves asking for help. What could be wrong?
1. Chapter 1

Snow White was sitting up in bed, nursing her baby son, and enjoying the breeze through the window and the singing of the birds. Raymond (the prince) was away but he would be home this evening and they would enjoy a lovely dinner despite the baby's frequent interruptions. The baby was so quiet that Snow White actually checked to make sure he wasn't sleeping. She yawned. She was quite close to sleeping herself. No, this wouldn't do. Snow White sat up and searched for something to do. There was a pile of letters on the bed that had been brought in earlier. Adjusting the arm that held the baby, Snow White reached for the letters with her other hand. Yes, it was as she thought. There was one from the Little Cottage of the Seven Dwarves.

On her last visit Snow White had begun teaching the dwarves how to write. Most of them had only been able to write their own names. She had not been able to teach them much in the three weeks she was with them but when she left they had promised to continue learning under the instruction of Doc. After that, the letters came steadily and constantly.

Letters from the dwarves usually had one thing in common. Spelling mistakes and the request for her to visit. Each time, Snow White had to decline. At first she was too close to delivery, then, after she had the baby, she was too tired and couldn't leave the baby. Snow White opened the letter, expecting another sweet invitation, painstakingly written with much love and care. She gasped. The paper was smudged, wrinkled and dirty. But the message on it was even more alarming than its' condition. It said: _**Please come NOW! We need help!**_

It was unsigned. Through the dirt and ink, she couldn't recognize the handwriting. Snow White leaned back against the pillows. What could have happened? Was it something terrible? The baby seemed to sense his mother's distress because he began to cry. Snow White forced herself to calm down, to relax her body and to breathe evenly. There wasn't much she could do right now and terrible as it was she'd just have to wait until Raymond was home. "It's all right, my little dove," she whispered, kissing the baby. "It's all right."

Raymond found her, pale and in tears, and demanded to know what was wrong. Snow White explained and showed him the letter.

"I must go and find out what is wrong," said Raymond. "You must stay here."

"No!" cried Snow White. "You must let me come."

"I won't put you into danger!" cried Raymond.

Snow White took a shuddery breath and forced herself, once again, to be calm and reasonable.

"I'm not a little child," she said. "I've learned much from you already. I'll be careful of traps and tricks and I'll stay close to you but I simply must come!" And seeing he was unconvinced, added, "The letter was sent to me, after all. It may be a problem only I can fix!"

"What sort of problem can that be?" asked Raymond. She knew he was thinking of witches and dark magic and how she would only be a hindrance. But Snow White refused to comply. "You must let me come!" she said, stamping her foot. "You must!"

He hadn't listened to her when she begged to remain at the dwarves for a bit longer so she could teach them some more. But perhaps there was something new in her face because he listened to her now.

"And who would care for the baby?" he asked, relenting.

"Don't be silly!" was all Snow White said. He knew it was really quite a foolish question. The baby had two perfectly capable nurses who adored him and were called in whenever Snow White needed some help or advice or simply rest.

The next morning, wearing a green riding dress, Snow White kissed her baby and whispered, "I'll be back soon!" Then Raymond helped her onto the horse, mounted it himself and they began the journey through the woods. Snow White laughed when she remembered how much these very trees had terrified her the first time she saw them, during her escape from the Queen. Now she was only grateful for their shade. It was August and the sun was hot.

By afternoon, they reached the familiar old cottage. The birds in the old oak by the cottage were merrily singing as usual. They made it difficult to believe that something could be wrong. Snow White greeted them and so did Raymond. Then, he tied the horse to the old oak and rushed inside. Snow White grabbed the door just in time to keep it from banging and also stepped inside.

"What terrible thing has happened here?" Raymond gasped, looking around. Snow White stepped over the shoe that lay by the door and wrinkled her nose but did not see anything out of the usual. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"There must have been a raid by robbers. I believe your dwarves were careless and attracted the attention of robbers with their precious stones."

"Robbers? There aren't any robbers in these woods!" Snow White said.

Raymond gestured wordlessly at the clothes, shoes, and dishes that covered the floor and chairs. Snow White began to laugh. She tried to stop but the more she thought about it, the funnier it seemed to her until she had to lean against a dust-covered wall for support. Raymond stood silently, his eyebrows raised but did not grow angry. He could never get angry at Snow White for laughing. He loved hearing her laugh too much.

"I forgot!" Snow White finally gasped. "I forgot that you've never seen their cottage after I've been away!" Then sobering, she added, "If there were robbers they would not leave cobwebs on the walls. See?"

Raymond pulled away from the web-covered finger. He couldn't understand how Snow White could be so lighthearted when just last night she sat weeping over the strange letter. He couldn't understand that as she spent more and more time here she felt surer and surer than nothing could _really_ be wrong. Not if the cabin was still messy and the birds still sang outside.

"Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho!"

"Oh!" gasped Snow White. "They must be coming home already!" She ran to the window, brushed the dust from it, looked out and ran outside with a glad cry.

"Doc, Grumpy, Happy, all of you! I'm here!" Snow White spread her arms wide. Doc stopped abruptly upon seeing her, causing the rest of the dwarves to bump into each other and go flying in every direction.

"It's Snow White!" Doc hollered and the dwarves rushed to her in a stampede. Although her main concern at the moment was not being knocked over, she did notice that there were only six dwarves not seven. The next few moments, she was busy touching shoulders and shaking hands and kissing foreheads as she attempted to greet each dwarf separately.

"Snow White! W-w-what a wonderful surp-p-prise!" said Doc. "W-w-we weren't suspecting you!"

"Expecting," Snow White corrected gently. Then she added, "How could I possibly not come after receiving the letter? Doc, what happened?"

Doc looked blank. "Letter?" he asked.


	2. Chapter 2

"Didn't you send us a letter asking for immediate help?" Raymond asked. Snow White had barely noticed him standing beside her until this moment. He suddenly seemed absurdly tall.

Doc looked rather intimidated before Raymond. "N-n-no," he said.

"Then you're not in any sort of trouble," affirmed Raymond.

"No," Happy spoke up. "All fine and dandy!"

"Oh, this is wonderful!" gasped Snow White. "I'm so glad you're not in trouble, I'd like to sing!" Raymond gave her a look and she knew he wouldn't just let it go like that. "It _must_ have been one of you who sent it," she added.

"W-w-w-why would they d-do that?" asked Doc.

"To get me to come," Snow White said.

"If I find the one who dared to play such a rotten trick, I'll stuff the letter down his throat!" said Grumpy.

"Oh, yes, the letter!" Snow White said. Raymond was already reaching for the saddle bag that she had placed the letter in.

Doc cleared his throat as he pulled a magnifying glass from his pocket. "Ahem!" he said. "Let me see the letter!"

"It's not in there," said Raymond.

"Oh, give it here!" scoffed Snow White. Men never knew how to find things, she thought. But to her surprise, the letter really wasn't there.

"I know I placed it inside," Snow White said, puzzled. "Could it have fallen out?"

"Impossible!" said Raymond. "You placed it on the bottom of the bag and we rode slowly. It would seem that someone took it."

"Everybody, look here!" Snow White said, raising her voice ever so slightly. There was immediate silence. "Not everybody's here," she said. Where there had been six dwarves before, there were only four. "Where's Bashful?" she asked.

"There he is," pointed Happy. "And he's carrying flowers!" The dwarves tittered. Bashful was running across the field and carrying a bouquet of daisies. Looking up, he realized everyone could see him and hurriedly hid the flowers behind his back. Suddenly meeting Snow White's friendly look, he blinked, and lowered his gaze. Once he was staring fixedly on the ground, he said, "I jus' brought you a little somethin' for a welcome, Snow White," and still avoiding her gaze, handed her the flowers. Snow White accepted the daisies and said, "Why, thank you, Bashful," as Bashful hid his hands in his beard and turned his typical shade of red. Snow White felt tears come to her eyes. She had missed all of them so much! And here they were and nothing was wrong and she felt so joyful that she twirled around in a little circle, with her hands outstretched, hoping to spread the lovely daisy scent. A moment later it occurred to her that this was a bad idea (although she couldn't remember why) and in the next moment she heard, "A…A…A…A-achoo!"

Snow White barely had time to touch Raymond's shoulder in warning before the sneeze blew her skirt around her feet and blew Raymond hat to the ground. The dwarves had all tumbled to the ground again.

"I'm sorry," Sneezy said sheepishly.

"Oh, it was my fault," Snow White said. "But where is Dopey?"

"There he is!" Happy pointed. He seemed to enjoy pointing people out. Then he laughed. "And he's bringing another flower!"

There was Dopey, skipping and tripping over his clothes and carrying another daisy. He reached Snow White and presented the daisy to her proudly.

"Thank you, Dopey," Snow White said, and took care to hold the daisy close to her. Dopey wiped his mouth with his too-long sleeve and puckered his lips. Snow White heard Raymond give a surprised chuckle. He had not seen this little ritual before.

"Oh, all right!" Snow White laughed and kissed Dopey's forehead. "Now where is Sleepy?" she asked, straightening.

"Inside, cooking!" Happy announced.

"Cooking?" said Snow White. If Happy had said _flying_, she couldn't have been more surprised.

"Yes," said Doc. "Since you left, we started t-t-taking turns staying behind in the kitchen booking and caking, uh, I mean, cooking and baking."

"And a stupid idea it was too!" said Grumpy. "None of us can cook, and that's the truth."

Doc looked offended. "Now Sleepy promised–" he said, but Grumpy cut him off with, "Yes, and he's asleep _again_ and we have no dinner!"

"More than likely," added Happy.

Snow White realized Sleepy was, in all probability, asleep inside and she immediately got a mischievous idea. She leaned in close to the dwarves. "Let's tiptoe in and surprise him!" she whispered.

They tiptoed into the house as quietly as they possibly could. It wasn't very quiet at all but Snow White knew that if their cheers and laughter had not woken Sleepy up yet, nothing would.

Sleepy was curled up on a little stool in the washing-up room, where the large basin stood filled with cold water. He had gone there in order to wash a pot for soup and had fallen asleep in the process. It had been his intention to take a nap while the soup was brought to a boil, so perhaps it is fortunate that he never got to cooking it.

Snow White motioned to the dwarves to tiptoe around him, and finally leaned over him, shook his shoulder gently and muttered, "Sneezy, dear. It's time to wake up!"

Sneezy opened his eyes slowly, then blinked several times when he saw Snow White, and finally opened his eyes wide. There was a silence. Then Sneezy reached up to rub one eye and asked, "Is this a dream?"

The dwarves' laughter frightened away all the little birds that were peeking in the windows. Raymond used this moment to lean over and whisper something in Snow White's ear.

"I will have to stay for dinner," said Snow White to Raymond quietly. "Why, they wouldn't let me leave right away! I'm here now and they're hungry and I can make all sorts of delicious things. And you have to stay too! We must find out who wrote the letter!"

She headed over to the table and the dwarves followed her, interrupting each other, pushing, stumbling and asking questions. Snow White began to pull out the ingredients, chopping and slicing expertly. Raising her voice slightly she said, "Now you're all here! I'm so glad! Now someone here has written me a letter saying you were in trouble and asking for help and now the letter is gone. I shall be asking all of you about it. Was it you, Doc?" she asked, more out of fairness than the belief that Doc could have done it. He _was_ the best writer of the seven but he had been near her the entire time so he couldn't possibly have stolen it out of her bag. Unless one person wrote the letter and another stole it. Perhaps, this was a group plan.

Doc's response was immediate, though his answer was not. He stared at Snow White and stuttered and finally snapped, "C-c-certainly not!"

Snow White believed him. He had met her gaze with outrage and shock, not guilt. She went down the list. "Grumpy?" she asked. "Was it you?" Neither did she believe it was Grumpy. He was not the sneaky sort. His actions were usually bold and upfront.

Grumpy looked taken aback. "Heh!" he said. "_Me?_ I wouldn't bet on it!"

Snow White turned to Happy. "Happy?" she asked. "Did you do it?"

"Nope," Happy said, easily. "Great idea! Wish I'd thought of it!" He ducked Grumpy's fist just in time. Snow White held his merry gaze for a just a couple of seconds. He didn't seem to be the sneaky type either.

"Bashful?" Snow White asked, hesitantly. She hated turning the attention to him, but she had to be fair. Bashful turned red and stared at the floor. In anyone else that behavior would have been suspicious but this was Bashful simply being Bashful. Had he acted differently Snow White would have been more inclined to suspect him.

"Sleepy?" Snow White asked. Sleepy yawned. "No," he said. "I didn't do it." He couldn't have stolen the letter anyway if he was asleep inside all this time. Unless he had been pretending…

"Sneezy?" Snow White asked. He could have done it. She didn't really speak to him until after he sneezed and the sneeze would have blown anything right out of his hands.

Sneezy shrugged. "Not me," he said.

"W-wait a minute," said Doc. "Was the letter written in regular ink?"

"Yes," said Snow White.

"Then it c-c-couldn't have been him. He's allergic to ink and he n-n-never writes with it."

"Well, what does he write with?" Snow White asked.

Doc looked sheepish. Sneezy spoke up. "You know the purple jam you kept on sendin' us? I use that."

"My blackberry jam?" Snow White gasped. She had worked so hard on that jam getting it to taste just right and they had used it for ink! But she should be proud of them. It was quite a sacrifice. No, the letter had definitely not been written in jam. She would have noticed the smell.

So it couldn't have been Sneezy. Who was left? Someone was pulling at her skirt. She turned around. There stood Dopey, eager to be included in whatever was going on and eager for the attention. Snow White nearly laughed at considering him. Impossible. "Did you do it, Dopey?" she asked.

Dopey smiled widely and shook his head emphatically. He seemed to think this was a sort of game. Snow White sighed. "All right everybody, go wash up!" While they were gone, she quietly motioned to Raymond to get her previously cooked pies out of the saddle bag. Raymond chuckled and brought in the bag, pulling out nine still slightly warm meat pies. Snow White carefully placed them on the table, then, placed the bits of cheese she had just sliced and the pieces of carrot she had just chopped up into two separate bowls. When the dwarves arrived, they stopped and stared at the table and then at Snow White as if she was a magician.

"Everyone sit down!" Snow White said. Everyone sat. Dopey leaned forward on his elbows in order to get as close to the pies as he could. Then he thought the better of it and began to wring and roll up his too-long sleeves first. Apparently, he had not rolled them up when he was washing his hands because now they were dripping wet. Grumpy glanced at Dopey's dripping sleeves in disgust and pulled away from him.

Raymond began to say grace. The dwarves all closed their eyes but Snow White peeked and saw Dopey slowly moving his hand closer and closer to the pies. She reached out and tapped his hand sternly. Dopey jerked it back.

"Amen," said Raymond and in the next few moments, found himself under the seat as the dwarves fought and wrestled for the pies. After everyone realized there were just enough pies, there were fights over the cheese and the carrots.

After dinner, Snow White asked Doc whether they were still practicing their writing daily.

"Oh, y-y-yes!" Doc said proudly. "We've even begun to wash our hands before writing, just like we d-d-do before dinner."

Snow White thought that was uncommonly silly but she knew she would hurt Doc's feelings if she laughed.

But Doc wasn't finished. "And we've started c-c-copying out of books too!" he said.

Now _this_ Snow White approved of. "Wherever did you get the books?" she laughed.

"Liberry," said Sneezy, finding it a good moment to interrupt. "Look!" he said, handing Snow White a book. It was about a man trapped on a desert island. Snow White examined the book, then looked up and said, "_Now_, I know who sent me the letter."

* * *

**Can you guess who sent Snow White the letter? The next update will have the answer.**


	3. Chapter 3

The culprit was, of course, Dopey. Dopey's long sleeves, which became immersed in water each time he washed his hands, had made the letter muddy and inky! It was also Dopey who stole the letter from Snow White's saddle bag and hid it because he _had_ been gone for quite some time (from the time the dwarves first saw Snow White to the time Dopey came running back carrying a flower.) When Snow White explained her reasoning, Dopey met Grumpy's gaze and dashed for the door.

"Hold him!" shouted Doc, and Grumpy knocked Dopey to the floor. He would have been rather badly off if Snow White hadn't shouted, "Stop it! Stop it! Leave him alone!"

Grumpy reluctantly backed away. Dopey leaped up and hid behind Snow White's skirt.

"Dopey didn't mean to play a trick exactly," Snow White explained. "He simply heard Doc explaining that the man on the desert island (in the book) sent a letter asking for help out into the sea. That's when Dopey got the idea of sending a letter like that to me. He copied the letter out of the book and mailed it. Isn't that right, Dopey?"

Dopey nodded.

"Well, you musn't do that anymore," Snow White said firmly. "It is very wicked sending people letters asking for help when you don't need any." It occurred to Snow White that she should make him apologize, but how could she when he could not talk? "But you won't do it anymore, will you?"

Dopey nodded, then, quickly stopped and shook his head. Snow White sighed. "Well how about a little dancing before bedtime?" she asked the other dwarves.

As Happy and Doc headed upstairs to get their banjos, Grumpy growled, "I could still give him a good licking!"

"But if he hadn't sent the letter, we wouldn't have Snow White!" said Happy, quietly.

"Hmm!" said Grumpy but decided to forgive Dopey just this once.


End file.
